US, Japanese, Philippine coast guard ships stage law enforcement drills near South China Sea

By AARON FAVILA and JOEAL CALUPITAN
Associated Press

ABOARD BRP CABRA, Philippines (AP) — U.S., Japanese and Philippine coast guard ships have staged law enforcement drills in waters near the disputed South China Sea as Washington presses efforts to reinforce alliances in Asia amid an increasingly tense rivalry with China. The weeklong exercises include a scenario involving the interdiction and boarding of a vessel suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction off the Bataan Peninsula. The Biden administration has been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in the South China Sea and in any future confrontation over Taiwan, the self-governing island with Beijing claims as a Chinese province.